Timeline: Bristol Royal infirmary inquiry

April 5 1995 Bristol Royal infirmary (BRI), part of Bristol Healthcare trust, admits it had halted a pioneering technique for open heart surgery for infants after nine of 13 babies operated on died over an 18-month period prior to 1993.

March 19 1997 The health secretary, Stephen Dorrell, announces an inquiry into cardiac surgery at the hospital, after an independent expert review showed that surgeon James Wisheart's open-heart surgery patients were four times more likely to die than those treated by his colleagues.

October 14 1997 Surgeons James Wisheart and Janardan Dhasmana and the chief executive of the United Bristol Healthcare NHS trust, John Roylance, face a General Medical Council (GMC) disciplinary tribunal charged with serious professional misconduct. It will investigate 53 BRI operations in which 29 patients died and four were left brain injured.

October 22 1997 Consultant anaesthetist Dr Stephen Bolsin tells the hearing that he made his anxieties about the death rates known to colleagues, a senior medical officer and the Department of Health (DoH) in 1991.

May 29 1998 The inquiry found that the two surgeons carried out the operations "without regard to their safety" and that John Roylance failed to respond to warnings about the doctors by failing to prevent the operations from going ahead. The GMC hearing has taken evidence from 67 witnesses and cost £2.2m.

June 7 1998 All hospitals in England and Wales publish annual statistics showing the death rates of patients highlighting unusual mortality statistics.

June 18 1998 Mr Wishart and Mr Roylance are struck off the medical register and Mr Dhasmana is banned from children's heart operations for three years by the GMC. Frank Dobson, health secretary, announces a public inquiry into children's heart surgery at the BRI.

June 20 1998 Mr Dobson says on Newsnight that Mr Dhasmana should have been struck off the register.

June 22 1998 Consultants at BRI say that "indiscriminate blame" had been laid on "doctors in Bristol" by the Royal College of Surgeons, the DoH and NHS managers.

September 2 1998 The National Health Service Litigation Authority promises the parents of children who died after undergoing heart surgery at the BRI that their claims for compensation would be dealt with "fairly and speedily".

March 18 1999 The public inquiry opens under the chairmanship of professor Ian Kennedy. It will investigate the care and management of children undergoing complex heart surgery at the BRI in 12 years to 1995. It is expected to last 18 months and cost between £10m and £15m.

May 14 1999 The parents' counsel, Richard Lissack QC, claims that the DoH, the Royal College of Surgeons and the BRI "covered-up" the scandal for three years to 1995.

May 11 2000 Professor Kennedy's interim report, published in the wake of the Alder Hey organs scandal inquiry, calls for a code of practice entrenched in law to ensure that organs and tissues are removed from children's bodies only with the consent of parents. At a press conference he describes the attitude of BRI doctors - in relation to the removal of organs from children - as "arrogance born of indifference".

June 13 2001 The ban on Mr Dhasmana operating on children is extended for a year.

August 9 2001: The government publishes its proposals for the council for the regulation of healthcare professions, a regulatory watchdog for the NHS professions, one of the Bristol inquiry report recommendations.

September 3 2001: The government consultation document, Involving Patients and Public in Healthcare, is published, setting out proposals for a patient-centred NHS.

November 8 2001: The NHS reforms and healthcare professions bill is laid before parliament. It forms the legislative basis for several post-Bristol inquiry reforms, such as the strengthening of the NHS inspectorate, the commission for health improvement.

January 17: The government publishes Learning from Bristol, its formal response to the inquiry, which sets out how it plans to make the NHS safer, more open and accountable.